GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS: Fan Wei Gets Nod for Best Lead Actor

Chinese character actor Fan Wei (??) won the best actor prize at this year's Golden Horse Awards on Saturday for his role in the film "Mr. No Problem" (???????), an award the 54-year-old character actor said came as a total surprise.

Nominated for a Golden Horse for the first time in his long career, Fan was praised by the judges for a passion and subtlety belying his calm exterior and for his humorous yet ironic interpretation of the good and evil in his character.

In "Mr. No Problem," Fan plays the director of a money-losing farm outside of Chongqing in the 1940s that operates at a loss, under a facade of not having any problem.

The farm manager uses every bit of guile he can muster to keep his personal control over the farm despite the dissatisfaction of owners who want to see better results.

In his acceptance speech, Fan said he did not expect to win the award but thanked the judges for patiently discovering the subtleties of a performance that required a rather reserved approach.

Fan said he had thought of a few things to say in case he won the award while sitting in the audience but forgot his lines once he stood on stage.

"I feel that standing here today, I had to have the heavens, the gods, the place and people on my side. Without any one of them, I wouldn't be here," Fan said.

Speaking backstage after winning the award, Fan said "Mr. No Problem actually created a lot of problems" because of the subtleties of the part and admitted that he was already satisfied to simply be nominated for best lead actor.

Other nominees for the best lead actor were Hong Kong actors Tony Leung (???) for "Cold War 2" (??2), Michael Hui (???) for "Godspeed" (????), Jacky Cheung (???) in "Heaven in the Dark" (????) and Taiwan's Kai Ko (???) for "The Road to Mandalay."

Fan started his performing career as crosstalk performer and later became an actor in television drama and movies.